It may sound like a barking mad idea, but we’re adding dogs to our collection of tools to discourage birds from nesting at some of our facilities.
We own airports in Motueka and Tākaka, as well as Port Tarakohe in Golden Bay, and birds are a constant nuisance creating safety issues.
Aircraft and wildlife, especially birds, have been coming into contact with one another since the beginning of aviation. The first reported bird strike occurred in 1905, when the Wright Flyer, flown by Orville Wright, struck a bird over an Ohio cornfield.
A bird strike can have devastating effects on aircraft, and flocking birds that are slow flying, less manoeuvrable or erratic, such as plovers, are one of our biggest problems locally.
We use several discouragement methods including gas-powered cannons that give off loud boom sounds, but the birds get used to them, with one pair of plovers even seen nesting under a cannon.
Future culls are planned, but in the meantime, we’ve looked at other scarer techniques, and now we’ve let the dogs out.
A pack of wooden dog cutouts have been created and are being placed at identified trouble spots at our facilities.
The artificial canine deterrents are in a shape and form that should appear threatening to the birds and discourage them from congregating, and the benefits of the cutouts are that they don’t need to be fed, microchipped, or registered.